Group aware tracking of personal property within a bounded zone
View Patent ↗Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to personal articles tracking and provide a method, system and computer program product for group aware tracking within a bounded zone. In an embodiment of the invention, a group aware tracking method can include recording an association in a table in a computing system between individuals within a geographically bounded zone and at least one target object within the geographically bounded zone. The method also can include sensing an individual from amongst the individuals exiting the geographically bounded zone and further sensing a target object exiting the geographically bounded zone. The method yet further can include comparing the sensed individual with the further sensed target object to determine whether or not an association exists in the table and triggering an alarm when an association is determined not to exist in the table between the sensed individual and the further sensed target object.
1. A group aware tracking method comprising:
recording an association in a table in a computing system between a plurality of individuals within a geographically bounded zone and at least one target object within the geographically bounded zone;
sensing an individual from amongst the individuals exiting the geographically bounded zone;
further sensing a target object exiting the geographically bounded zone;
comparing the sensed individual with the further sensed target object by a controller to determine whether or not an association exists in the table; and
triggering an alarm when an association is determined not to exist in the table between the sensed individual and the further sensed target object.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
further determining whether or not a target object remaining in the geographically bound zone is associated in the table with an individual remaining in the geographically bound zone; and
triggering an alarm when it is further determined that a target object remaining in the geographically bound zone is associated in the table only with individuals no longer remaining in the geographically bound zone.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein recording an association in a table in a computing system between a plurality of individuals within a geographically bounded zone and at least one target object within the geographically bounded zone, comprises:
recording an association in a table in a computing system between an authorized group of a plurality of individuals within a geographically bounded zone and at least one target object within the geographically bounded zone; and
wherein triggering an alarm when an association is determined not to exist in the table between the sensed individual and the further sensed target object, comprises:
triggering an alarm when an association is determined not to exist in the table between an authorized group including the sensed individual and the further sensed target object.
4. A group aware tracking data processing system comprising:
a computer system comprising memory, at least one process and fixed storage;
a link table coupled to the computer system, the table comprising associations between individuals and target objects in at least one geographically bounded zone;
a personal identification sensor disposed in proximity to a boundary of the geographically bound zone and coupled to the computer system;
a target object sensor disposed in proximity to the boundary and coupled to the computer system; and
group aware tracking logic executing in the computer system, the logic comprising program code of instructions enabled to compare an individual sensed exiting the geographically bounded zone by the personal identification sensor with a target object sensed exiting the geographically bounded zone by the target object sensor to determine whether or not an association exists in the link table and to trigger an alarm when an association is determined not to exist in the link table between the individual and the target object.
5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the personal identification sensor comprises a biometric sensor.
6. The system of claim 4 , wherein the target object sensor comprises a radio frequency identification (RFID) sensor.
7. The system of claim 4 , further comprising additional personal identification sensors and target object sensors disposed about different geographically bounded zones, and wherein the link table comprises different associations for a target object with different individuals corresponding to different geographically bounded zones.
8. The system of claim 4 , wherein the link table further comprises associations between an authorized group of individuals and a target object.
9. A computer program product comprising a computer usable storage medium embodying computer usable program code for group aware tracking, the computer program product comprising:
computer usable program code for recording an association in a table in a computing system between a plurality of individuals within a geographically bounded zone and at least one target object within the geographically bounded zone;
computer usable program code for sensing an individual from amongst the individuals exiting the geographically bounded zone;
computer usable program code for further sensing a target object exiting the geographically bounded zone;
computer usable program code for comparing the sensed individual with the further sensed target object to determine whether or not an association exists in the table; and
computer usable program code for triggering an alarm when an association is determined not to exist in the table between the sensed individual and the further sensed target object which are processed by a controller.
10. The computer program product of claim 9 , further comprising:
computer usable program code for further determining whether or not a target object remaining in the geographically bound zone is associated in the table with an individual remaining in the geographically bound zone; and
computer usable program code for triggering an alarm when it is further determined that a target object remaining in the geographically bound zone is associated in the table only with individuals no longer remaining in the geographically bound zone.
11. The computer program product of claim 9 ,
wherein the computer usable program code for recording an association in a table in a computing system between a plurality of individuals within a geographically bounded zone and at least one target object within the geographically bounded zone comprises, recording an association in a table in a computing system between an authorized group of a plurality of individuals within a geographically bounded zone and at least one target object within the geographically bounded zone; and
wherein the computer usable program code for triggering an alarm when an association is determined not to exist in the table between the sensed individual and the further sensed target object comprises, computer usable program code for triggering an alarm when an association is determined not to exist in the table between an authorized group including the sensed individual and the further sensed target object.